The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, assured yesterday in the Congress that Spain’s sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla “is not at risk and never will be”.
“I appreciate your concern about sovereignty issues,” said the minister during the session of control to the Government in response to a question from a MP of Vox, Maria Teresa Lopez Alvarez, on the “risk entails that Morocco has returned to say in recent days that ‘Ceuta and Melilla are occupied Moroccan cities'”.
“Ceuta and Melilla are not at risk and never will be”, continued González Laya. The inhabitants of the two Autonomous Cities themselves “are clear that Spanish sovereignty is not at risk” and, therefore, “there is no doubt that these two cities are Spain and are the external border of the EU and, as there is no doubt, we will stop sowing fear and disunity”, because, “at this time, appearing disunity is the least convenient thing for us”, she warned.
According to the minister, the Government and Vox are “separated by many things, it is quite evident, but not the Spanish sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla”. Therefore, this “is a time to unite, especially in matters of State, and this is certainly one of them”, and the issue of the two Autonomous Cities should not fit “within the partisan game in our country”, she said.
The minister also used her speech to defend the Government’s commitment to “discreet and effective diplomacy” to solve the current bilateral crisis with Morocco, which erupted in mid-May because of the entry and hospitalization in Spain of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, and the subsequent decision of Rabat to allow an uncontrolled flood of immigrants across the border with Ceuta. “For it to be effective it is best that both you and I defend that sovereignty and you and your group stand behind the Government, which is the one who is defending it here, in Europe and in the world”, she warned.
During her speech, the Vox MP said that her party does not want “more words”, but “facts”, and warned that “what Morocco has done is a feint of training to finally annex Ceuta and Melilla”. “In that training, it has seen a government that does not take forceful measures in defense of its sovereignty, which is the best example of the inconsistency and weakness of its foreign policy”, continued López, who asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to establish “limits” in its neighborhood policy with Morocco and to stop worrying so much about climate change and feminist foreign policy and face “blackmail and extortion” from Rabat.
